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'Sonata Mulattica' gives life to forgotten violinist
By James D. Watts Jr.

What is easily the most ambitious book of Rita Dove's distinguished career began with a few moments of film footage.

Dove, a former U.S. poet laureate, and her husband were watching "Immortal Beloved," a film biography of Beethoven when a brief scene about one of the composer's best-known works - the Violin Sonata No. 9, commonly known as the "Kreutzer Sonata" - caught her attention....